The House of Lords is supporting a plan to introduce a smoking ban in cars carrying kids.

The House of Lords is supporting a plan to introduce a smoking ban in cars carrying kids.

The Lords have supported a Labour plan to initiate a smoking ban in vehicles carrying children as they say it represents a measure for protecting children. The government has already expressed its opposition and ministers said this new law is nothing more than a "blunt instrument." Despite the incoming critics, it seems backbenchers will be given the right for a vote on this amendment when the bill will come back from the Lords.

The House of Lords referred to a research conducted by the British Lung Foundation which showed smoking a cigarette in a moving car with the window half opened exposes a child sitting in the middle of the backseat to approximately two-thirds as much as the usual second-hand smoke in pubs (before smoking in many enclosed public spaces and workplaces was banned in UK in 2007). When the car is not in motion and the windows are all closed, the level increases by a whopping 11 times.

As a side note, a similar ban is already applicable in several European countries, as well as Canada, Australia and some states in the U.S.